Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Boss fights. How would you do it?

[youngnutter]

Lets us start by ignoring the debate of, are they good or are they bad or who was to blame and so on. If thats what you want then there are other threads out there for that. Instead, my question is "how would you have done those fights?"

Some ideas then. The Strength and Wall force ideas require you to drop the health of the boss, either with bullets or takedowns or some sort, before a final finishing move.

Strength. A unique take down move. Lethal finish would see the head ripped off. The non lethal finish would see limbs destroyed or removed to incapacitate the boss.

Wall Force. Pillars or other room architecture is smashed into the boss or the boss into them when the boss is in the right place. Lethal Finish will be the boss repeatedly slammed into a gooey mess against a wall or pillar. Non lethal finish will be the crumpled boss trapped under a wall or pillar with some twitching motions from the body.

Strength + Wall force. A unique take down move. Lethal finish only. Boss is picked up and smashed through two consecutive walls leaving the boss impaled on a protruding spike.

Hack. A unique takedown that leaves the boss on the floor and allows us to directly hack the boss. The more health the boss has the harder the hack is. Multiple server paths and goals. 1) Make the boss head explode. (Sorry Scanners moment there ) 2) Insert a pacifism virus ending combat. 3) Insert a remote control virus allowing you to either force the boss to kill itself or shut down its limbs. 4) Insert an empathy virus ending combat and leaving the boss as a possible ally for a later part of the game. Maybe another boss fight. You could also have information stored here about who this boss is and why there are here. Or even further information about other bosses and who they are and how they fight and so on.

Cloak. You would probably have to hide for an amount of time until the boss was in the right place. Then cloak up to the boss and a unique take down move allows you to use the boss to access an escape route in the roof and stealth away. This leaves us the possibility of this boss then appearing in the next boss fight. Imagine trying the final boss with all the other goons running around....

Social. Why not? The more health the boss has the harder it is to convince them to A) stop attacking. B) Stop attacking and provide information. C) Stop attacking and assist the player.

So. How would you do yours?

 

[GiantRaven]

I wouldn't have bothered putting them in. I much preferred the boss-esque persuasion sections and wanted more of those.

The final boss can stay though, that was pretty cool.

 

[FredTheUndead]

I'd put a door behind them so I can run out like I did in 1.

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

Good set of was to deal with bosses but I agree with this guy minus the fact I never played Deus Ex 1 but rather games like it.

I'd put a door behind them so I can run out like I did in 1.

 

[Supertegwyn]

Hmmmmm.

I think I would put the boss in a big gladiator style arena, which you enter from the rafters. You can choose to attack him from above (but have goons or the like attacking you), directly fight the boss (no goons, but the boss will be able to do far more damage), hack turrets to help you, or just have a door to run out of (but you lose exp, and there will be consequences. Maybe one of the main characters is killed by the boss if you let them go?)

Just my two cents.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I personally wouldn't have bothered throwing in the Boss Fights. Or (much like the first one from what I've heard) make it possible for the player to escape the Boss Fight, and have the story rewritten to affect the events.

In addition, I'd have made Tranq Rifles and Stun Guns more effective Vs Bosses, much like the Boss Fights in Metal Gear Solid 2 (where the boss has two health bars - one for Lethal Damage, and the other for Knockout Damage).

 

[Baron_BJ]

Hack. A unique takedown that leaves the boss on the floor and allows us to directly hack the boss. The more health the boss has the harder the hack is. Multiple server paths and goals. 1) Make the boss head explode. (Sorry Scanners moment there ) 2) Insert a pacifism virus ending combat. 3) Insert a remote control virus allowing you to either force the boss to kill itself or shut down its limbs. 4) Insert an empathy virus ending combat and leaving the boss as a possible ally for a later part of the game. Maybe another boss fight. You could also have information stored here about who this boss is and why there are here. Or even further information about other bosses and who they are and how they fight and so on.

WARNING: The following post has a shitload of big plot spoilers.

Empathy virus? They still have brains, they still hate you for fucking with their business, I can understand shutting down their augs, leaving them as big piles of crap with a human head, much like Zhao (spelling?) attempted to do to you with "The Glitch" replacement chips. Perhaps you mean causing an overload in a neural center of the brain, much like the one Hugh Darrow caused across the globe (though his was causing violent hallucinations), but I'm not sure that it would even be possible to cause a consistant, positive hallucination that would not cause the recipient to freak the fuck out.

Personally though I'd have made it so that it would have been possible for a player to hide from the boss in question (you flee and hide really well), and whilst they're looking around you could get the drop on them however you would need to do so multiple times. Since hacking maxes out insanely easily one could simply ignore this as an option.

Side Note: Story-wise though stealth wouldn't work and I don't even mean how the bosses always get the drop on you, I refer to the augmentations, for example one of the augmentations you can unlock ingame allows you to see through walls, but it also allows for players to see through cloaks (double-check ingame if you must, go on, I'll wait). Logically the bosses who are clearly more geared up than Jensen would have this augmentation as well, meaning they're going to find you and they're going to knock the shit out of you for trying to hide.

 

[Porecomesis]

Side Note: Story-wise though stealth wouldn't work and I don't even mean how the bosses always get the drop on you, I refer to the augmentations, for example one of the augmentations you can unlock ingame allows you to see through walls, but it also allows for players to see through cloaks (double-check ingame if you must, go on, I'll wait). Logically the bosses who are clearly more geared up than Jensen would have this augmentation as well, meaning they're going to find you and they're going to knock the shit out of you for trying to hide.

And yet they can't see you in the actual game.

 

[Woodsey]

Handle them the same way Zeke Sanders was handled: begin with a conversation that can lead to multiple outcomes. Alternatively, begin with them not aware of you, and allow you to decide whether you want to fight them whilst they're off-guard, speak to them to learn more (and possibly persuade them to leave you alone), sneak past them altogether (or at least so that you can get to an area that gives you a major advantage over them), and allow their fate to be decided.

Honestly, boss fights in games are outdated and often the worst part of any game. Sanders' encounter allowed the player choice, and actually used the logic upon which the game had been built.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Just remove them. They ran against the spirit of the game and added nothing of any worth. The NPCs were largely worthless from a narrative perspective. I just don't see anything about them worth preserving.

The major conversations in the game with individuals like Darrow and Taggart felt like the real boss battles, especially in a game so concerned with philosophy and thematic elements.

 

[Dendio]

Just remove them. They ran against the spirit of the game and added nothing of any worth. The NPCs were largely worthless from a narrative perspective. I just don't see anything about them worth preserving.

The major conversations in the game with individuals like Darrow and Taggart felt like the real boss battles, especially in a game so concerned with philosophy and thematic elements.

You raise an interesting point. The boss battle really weren't needed were they? I'd rather they scrap bosses and add two levels that are mutually exclusive and choice dependent. It gives a much needed reason to replay the game

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I know one thing I would have changed. Allow me to save the woman in the second boss fight. Why bring up the conversation about saving her if you're not going to give me the choice? That bothered me more than the actual fights.

As for the fights themselves, other people said to handle it like the Zeke encounter. I think that would have worked pretty well, although the last guy you would have had to end up killing. Simple revenge after what he did to you in the beginning.

 

[Dendio]

I took the chip before the zeke encounter. Fighting him with no augs, a messed up screen and no health/ammo bar sucked. Under those conditions I had no idea where he would disappear/reappear from and was regularly killed. Eventually I memorized his pattern but it was pretty frustrating. I'd rather have no boss fight than have to deal with that again. Still at least I can say I survived Zeke with the chip ( and didn't use any gimp tactics)

 

[Jonluw]

Umm, the same way I did it when I played the game?
[sub]Okay, I haven't reached the third boss yet, but whatever.[/sub]

I found the boss-fights rather easy actually.
If you're anything like me, you pick up every emp-grenade you see, and I just used those coupled with the stun gun and frag grenades (and sometimes some help from my 10 mm) to beat the bosses without trouble at all. I took the first boss on my first attempt. I died one or two times while taking on the second boss, but still beat her without trouble.
And yes, I am playing a stealth-character.
I haven't used a single weapon-upgrade I haven't found lying around. My aim has mostly been getting the 'ghost' and 'smooth operator' experience bonuses.

 

[Chased]

I would of made melee actually viable and not have created such a severe punishment when trying to find out if you could melee a boss.

 

[DustyDrB]

Same way you played the rest of the game: give us options. Obviously, cutscene Adam Jensen didn't jive well with us. The weird thing is that I played Vanquish right before playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The latter's bosses are like a poorly done version of the former's, and it's even worse because those types of encounters don't fit in with Human Revolution at all.

I'll say this: The bosses were easy. If you think they were hard, then you just aren't using everything at your disposal.

I'll also say this: The bosses are probably easier for stealth/pacifist players. Why? We're more likely to have the stun gun on us. And anyone who had used it in a boss fight knows how trivial it makes those encounters. We're also more likely to think outside of the box than players who had grown accustomed to relying on their normal weapons. That's not putting down those players, it's just commenting on habits you pick up as you play a game a certain way. The stealth/pacifist people really have to focus on observing the environment in detail.

But, finally, I'll say this: The bosses were unsatisfying. Their characterization didn't go beyond "meanie head" and the fights against them were sloppy clusterfucks (or cheap snoozefests if you had them stunned the entire time). I'd rather they require more tact and care.

The Crying Wolf fight from Metal Gear Solid 4 is the kind of execution that I think would work better (minus the mechanical wolf suit, obviously). In case you didn't play that game, that fight was located in a big environment with many grunts and Wolf all looking for you. Wolf kind of stalked around, looking for you and attempting to pick you off from a distance or (or rush ambush you if you were carelessly running out in the open). Stealth was key to staying alive in that fight.

 

[K84]

It would've been nice to be able to use your CASIE aug with bosses actually.
And if you did'nt have it, still have a talk option with them.

 

[YesConsiderably]

I rather enjoyed the boss battles. The combat itself wasn't exceptional, but the setting of each fight was really cool.

The Jaron encounter was awesomely nightmarish. My one criticism is that the proceeding cut-scenes were not all that interesting.

 

[Rack]

Take out the stupid cutscene where Jensen walks right into them, take out the door preventing you from bringing in turrets to help, take out their armour making them virtually immune to missiles, take away their unlimited grenades and throw in some grenade/ammo caches locked in safes nearby.